Former Minister jailed over land …goes in 7 days for contempt

The Financial and Economic Crimes Division 2 of the Accra High Court has sentenced Dr Mustapha Ahmed, the former Minister of Youth and Sports, to seven days imprisonment for contempt of court.

The former minister, who was the defendant at the time, was restrained from trespassing on the property by a perpetual injunction issued by the court in a judgment dated 12 June 2019, but he disobeyed the ruling.

The court also ordered him to pay a fine of GHC 12,000 or be jailed for 30 days.

The court, presided over by Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe, ordered that Kofi Ammoah Kwafo, the person who filed the contempt suit against Dr Ahmed, the Chief of Defence Staff and the Director General of Logistics of the Ghana Armed Forces, should receive GH5,000 of the fine if paid.

The contempt application has its roots in a land dispute dating back six years when Dr Ahmed, a former MP for Ayawaso North, sold land to Mr Kwafo in 2000 and later repossessed it on the pretext that he had made a mistake.

The plaintiff, Mr Kwafo, joined the Chief of Defence Staff and the Director General of Logistics in the contempt application because members of the GAF, who occupied a building constructed on the land in question, refused to obey the court's order to execute the judgment.